Want to know the one, most critical factor that will determine the success or failure of your Google AdWords campaign?

I”ll give you a hint: It has nothing to do with copywriting, quality scores, landing page optimization, or any fancy automation or research tools.  Don’t get me wrong, those are all important, but they aren’t the most critical factor. It’s much more simple than that.

Too many people make online advertising more complicated than it really needs to be. In previous articles like Congruence = Secret To Google AdWords Success and Congruence Across Devices Is Now Critical for Search Ads, I’ve talked about what I call “Campaign Tunnel Vision” which is when you focus too closely on the minute details of managing an ad campaign.  In other words, you dig too deep into campaign tips and tricks that you miss the forest from the trees.

At the end of the day, the success or failure of every ad campaign you run will depend on knowing your numbers.  Calculating your specific business numbers should be the very first (and most crucial) step to set up a profitable Google AdWords campaign.  Yet, many businesses skip this step, and instead, move hastily to setting up the main components of the campaign like keywords, ads, and landing pages.

That’s like buying a new couch without first taking the time to measure your living room to see if it’ll fit.  Sure, you could get lucky, but it’s going to be painful if you find out the couch is too big!  And that’s what can happen if you rush into advertising before knowing your numbers.  You  can end up advertising on keywords that, no matter how much you optimize, will simply never allow you to hit your business goals.

How Much Can You Afford to Pay?

When calculating your business numbers, one of the most important questions you to answer is, “How much can you afford to pay PER CLICK to generate one customer?”  Can you afford to pay $1, $5, or $10 per click? That’s obviously an important question to answer so you know how much you can bid in AdWords.

Keep in mind this number is going to be different for every business.  Just because you’re a dentist, and you know other dentists are paying $5 per click, doesn’t mean you can afford to pay that much.  It depends on many factors that are not readily apparent when you do competitive research.

For example, in order to figure out how much you can pay per click, you need to first answer the following questions:

• What is your 90 day profit per customer?
• What is your target advertising profit margin?
• On average, how many phone call leads convert to sales?
• On average, how many calls can you expect to receive from your website visitors each month?

Based on the answers to those questions, you can calculate a rough estimate for your maximum cost per click.  Let’s take a look at an example.

Le’s say your average 90 day profit per customer is $1,250.  To arrive at this number you need to take into account the initial profit per sale, average repeat sales, upsells and cross-sells to more products or services, and even referrals.

Next, let’s say your target ad profit margin is 25%. So if you invest $1,000 into AdWords, then you want to generate $250 in profit.  Based on historical data, you may find that you convert about 10% of all phone call leads into customers and you expect to receive about 5 phone calls per 100 visitors to your website.

The formula to calculate your maximum cost per click is:  $1,250 x (1-25%) x 10% x 5%

Once you do the math, then you’ll see your maximum cost per click, or CPC, is $4.69. That means you can pay up to $4.69 to generate a visitor to your website.  If you pay more, then you’ll most likely have a low profit margin or even worse, lose money on the ad campaign.

See how powerful it is to know your numbers?  Now you can identify the keywords you have confidence will be profitable, and the keywords that will most likely never work for your particular business.  This simple exercise will save you from a lot of pain and frustration… so don’t skip this important step the next time you set up an ad campaign!

If you’re using SEO or Google AdWords, here’s a rule you must follow:  aim for the bullseye, first.

This rule is so critical to success with search engine marketing… and yet most people don’t follow it.

And in this article, I’m going to explain what “bullseye” keywords are, why they’re so important, and how you can find yours today, so you attract more customers.

What Are Bullseye Keywords?

In our SEO Jumpstart class, one of the major concepts we teach is search intent.

There are basically two categories of keyword phrases: buying-intent keywords and research-intent keywords.

Bullseye keywords are another name I use for buying-intent keywords. When a prospect searches a bullseye keyword, then there is no doubt that she is an A+ quality prospect. Your products or services are providing a perfect match for their search intent.

Here’s an example…

Let’s say you own a knitting store in San Francisco.  A bullseye keyword would be something like “knitting store San Francisco.” If someone searches that in Google, they’re a perfect prospect for you. You are hitting the bullseye.

On the other hand, a non-bullseye (research-intent) phrase in this case would be “knitting.” Someone who searches “knitting” might be a good prospect for you, but there’s a very good chance that they would NOT be a good prospect. They could also just be researching some knitting ideas.

Why Aim at the Bullseye?

A lot of people want to focus on the generic “research” keywords because they get so much more search volume. But don’t get distracted by the big numbers. Instead, focus on what actually matters: 1) getting more customers and 2) minimizing your risk.

Here are 2 reasons why I always tell people to start with bullseye (buying-intent) keywords, first:

• Faster rankings. When it comes to SEO, bullseye keywords tend to be easier to rank for in Google because they are longer phrases — and longer phrases typically have less SEO competition. Generally speaking, a 3-5 word phrase is going to be much easier to rank for than a 1-2 keyword phrase.

• Higher conversion rates. Your goal with SEO or PPC shouldn’t just be to get rankings or clicks. Instead, your goal should be to get more customers. And buying-intent keywords typically convert much higher than more generic research keywords.
  

Now, I’m not suggesting you should avoid research keywords altogether. Research keywords can be valuable for both for SEO and PPC. But I  recommend you start by aiming at the bullseye, because that’s usually the lowest-hanging fruit.

How to Find Your Bullseye Keywords

Here are 2 quick methods for finding bullseye keywords…

1. Brainstorm

The simplest way is to just brainstorm. Put yourself in your prospect’s shoes, and think: What would I search if I was shopping for company’s products or services? And then cross-reference your ideas using Google’s free keyword tool to make sure you are targeting phrases that actually get some search volume.

2. Spy on The Competition

You can check out what keywords your competitors are targeting. Look at their websites and also look at what keywords your competitors are advertising on in Google, using Keyword Spy.

Here’s What To Do Now

If you’re just getting started with SEO or Google AdWords, then start by identifying your bullseye keywords.

And if you’re already using SEO and paid search, then take another look at the keywords you’re targeting. Are you aiming at your bullseye keywords? If not, then you’ll want to add them to the mix right away. By focusing on buying-intent keywords, you’ll attract more qualified leads and paying customers.

Last year I wrote about how congruence is the secret to advertising success and in this article I’m going to take it one step further due to some recent mobile device trends.  In that article I argued that many advertisers suffer from Campaign Tunnel Vision, which occurs when you focus too much time and effort on just one piece of the sales funnel at the expense of all the other key areas.

For example, it’s easy to get caught up optimizing different areas of your campaign in isolation, without taking a step back and measuring the effects on your entire sales funnel.  That’s Campaign Tunnel Vision.  The fact is, you can “optimize” bids, ads, and landing pages separately, but fail to increase your overall sales conversion rates.  Now, that’s what we call spinning your wheels!

The solution to this problem is congruence.  You must have a consistent message from the keywords and webpages you’re targeting, all the way through the ads, landing pages, offers, and even in-bound phone call scripts.  Any inconsistencies are like the chutes in the children’s game, Chutes and Ladders, that will throw your prospects out of the sales funnel and likely to your competitors.

According to a recent study by Google, we now have a new chute to watch out for…

Your Prospects Now Use Multiple Devices

In Google’s analysis of multi-device behavior, they found 90% of the 1,611 responders said they use multiple devices to complete an online task.  That could be switching from desktop to a smartphone or maybe a tablet over to a laptop.  Personally, I can remember several times when I looked for a nearby store on my laptop and then moved to my smartphone to find the exact directions en-route.  Another likely scenario is when you find something cool on your phone, but then you switch over to your desktop to do more research to ultimately make the purchase.

I’m sure you get the point… your prospects are using more than one device to find products and services.  Here’s another interesting fact from the study:  98% of those responders completed the task in the same day. Can you see now how your advertising campaign has a new chute where prospects are sliding out of the sales funnel?

Well if it’s not clear yet, then this final fact will certainly tie it all together.  The Google study found that consumers rely on search to move between devices.  So when your prospect finds you on a desktop, then she will then most likely go to Google to try to find you on her mobile phone or tablet, or vice versa.

Congruence Across Devices Is Now Critical

There are two key takeaways from this research.  First, you now need to target all devices in your search advertising campaigns so you actually show up when your prospects switch from one device to the other.  Otherwise, you’re going to lose sales when prospects simply can’t find you on the “other device.”

Second, you now need to ensure your sales messages are congruent across devices!  What happens if your prospect finds your ad on her desktop and then moves over to her mobile phone?  Does the same ad with the same offer show up?  Is it even possible to redeem the offer on your mobile friendly website?  Do you even have a mobile site that your prospect will be able to navigate with her thumbs?

All those questions now need to be answered in our new multi-device world.  It’s not enough to optimize your campaign for desktops and mobile devices separately.  That’s what I call Device Tunnel Vision :)

Google AdWords search advertising can be one of the best investments for your business for 2 very good reasons:

1. Highly targeted - Your ad only appears when people are searching for
   your product or service in Google.  So you get in front of your ideal customer
   at the exact time she’s looking to buy.
2. Low risk - Since you only pay per click, search advertising can be much less risky than other forms of advertising like media buying.  You’re essentially paying for performance.  If you’re ad does not resonate and no one clicks on it, then you don’t pay a penny.  You only pay if your ad attracts prospects, and they click on your ads to go check out your website.

So it’s no wonder why businesses flock to Google AdWords to see if they can make it work. But unfortunately, too many businesses end up LOSING money because they go about advertising with AdWords all wrong.

And part of it is Google’s fault…

Reason #1

You see, one the best things about AdWords is you can get started in a matter of minutes.   Google has made it so brain dead simple to get started that all you need to do is click a few buttons, enter your credit card info, and voilà! Your ads will start to show to your prospects and hopefully you’ll get qualified traffic.

So AdWords is one of the fastest ways to start generating new customers for your business.  However, that is precisely the reason why so many businesses lose money! Unfortunately Google’s default settings almost guarantee you’ll spend MORE money than you need to because that’s what Google wants.  Google is in business to make money from advertisers so of course it’s in their best interest to encourage businesses to spend more.

So that’s the first reason.  Many businesses lose money with AdWords simply because they don’t realize some of the default settings (like advertising in both the Search and Display network in the same campaign) almost guarantee you’ll lose money.

Reason #2

The second reason is because many businesses don’t fully understand how successful AdWords campaigns really work.  A lot of people think AdWords success is all about quality scores, bidding tips and tricks, and automation tools.  But success with AdWords really comes down to advertising fundamentals and best practices.

I’ve audited countless Google AdWords accounts where businesses were wasting hundreds and even thousands of dollars because they weren’t following direct response advertising best practices. And usually it’s not specific to AdWords… it’s much more basic than that.

By far the #1 mistake I see over and over again is when businesses send their advertising traffic to their homepage.  One of the most basic principles of advertising is to precisely match your message to your market/prospect.  Your homepage explains everything you do and addresses every single type of prospect that may visit your website.  So by nature, your homepage will never perfectly match your prospect who just typed in a very specific question into Google.

Reason #3

The third reason why many businesses lose money with AdWords is because they do not have a checklist.  When I audit AdWords campaigns I go through a very thorough checklist and I’ve never seen an account that was not wasting money because of a very simple account setting.  Here are some basic things to check before turning on your ads:

• Are you targeting the Search and Display network in the same campaign? This is a mistake because the search network is completely different than the display network, and usually requires different ads and landing pages.  So make sure you’re only targeting one network within a single campaign.
• Are you sending traffic from your ads to a laser targeted landing page or are you using your homepage?  Per advertising best practices, you never want to use your homepage.  Make sure you precisely match your message to your market.
• Do you have conversion tracking so you can calculate your return on investment for every campaign, ad group, and keyword in your account?  This brings us to Reason #4…

Reason #4

And finally, the fourth reason why most businesses lose money with AdWords is because they do not track leads and sales from their campaigns.  I am always shocked when customers tell me they have no way to measure the effectiveness of their AdWords campaigns.  Or they are measuring the wrong numbers!

For example, a private client I worked with a year ago was only focused on the cost of his ad campaign and he had no way to measure the revenue.  Each keyword was judged solely by the cost.  He would pause high cost keywords and only focus on low cost keywords despite the fact he had no idea which keywords were driving sales!

Think about that for a minute.  Advertising is not an expense where the goal is to drive down costs.  Advertising is an investment.  And the only way to optimize an investment is to accurately calculate the return.  Would you ever compare two investment portfolios purely on how much was invested in each of them?  Obviously not…  You would look at the return and compare the profits!  And that’s how you must treat your AdWords campaign if you want to be successful.

I hope by reading these 4 big AdWords mistakes you can avoid them altogether and start reaping the benefits of Google’s very large market.  When set up correctly, AdWords can generate leads and sales like a vending machine!

What would happen to your business if you could double your profits generated from Google AdWords advertising? Well, if you’re not advertising in AdWords, then I admit that wouldn’t have much of an effect. :)

However, the tactics I’m about to share in this article are not specific to AdWords. So what would happen if you could double your profits from ALL of your advertising?

That would be a game-changer. Doubling profits could instantly convert a flailing business on the brink of bankruptcy, to a growing empire on pace to acquire or eliminate all competitors. Of course, it also means more money in your bank account, which everyone loves (except that baby in the Capital One commercials…).

But do you honestly believe me when I say you can double your profits with only 20% improvements? That’s a bold claim so I expect some skepticism. I mean how can small 20% improvements possibly double your overall profits?

Well let’s take a closer look at the numbers. I promise if you bear with my brief math lesson, then you’ll have the keys to unlock massive profits from all of your advertising, including Google AdWords.

First, let’s define the 4 critical areas in any advertising campaign:

1. Response Rate = Your click-through rate for online ads.  This is how many people respond to your ad campaign.
2. Conversion Rate = Number of sales divided by number of responders/clicks on your ads.
3. Avg. Transaction Value = Average dollar amount of revenue per sale
4. Avg. 90 Day Value = Average dollar amount of future sales revenue within a 90 day period.  This is sometimes called lifetime value or backend value.

It turns out, if you improve each of the four areas above by a mere 20%, then you will double your profits.  This isn’t theory.  I’m talking about basic, elementary school arithmetic here.  And I’ll give you an example so you see this in action.

Below is a chart with an example Search Google AdWords campaign on the left, and another campaign with 20% improvements in the four areas.

As you can see, all we did here was improve the 4 areas of the campaign by 20% and we went from $2,500 profit to $5,400.  That’s MORE than double! And you can run this analysis with any numbers you want on the left hand side.  You’ll always double your profits if you improve each of the 4 areas by 20%.

20% is not very hard.  Here are some ideas for each of the 4 areas.

Response Rates:

• Use a benefit focused headline in your ad
• Promise to answer a question you know your prospect is seeking to answer

Conversion Rates:

• Create scripts for in-bound phone calls to ensure every call is handled properly
• Make your offer irresistible by shifting the risk from your prospect to your company

Avg. Transaction Value:

• Raise your prices by highlighting the true value you provide to your customers (i.e. time savings, long term money savings, future profits, etc.)
• Offer additional products or services at the point of sale that will make your customer’s life even easier/better

Avg. 90 Day Value:

• Offer additional products or services after your customer is satisfied with the first purchase
• Set up a referral system so that every new customer is worth at least one more customer.  That can quickly double the 90 day value.

Those are just a few ideas to get you started.  Now that you know you can more than double your profits, you should have all the motivation you need to start systematically improving your ad campaigns.  Good luck testing!

Phil

P.S. If you’re just getting started with Google AdWords, and you want to avoid costly mistakes…

Or, if you’re already advertising with AdWords and want expert shortcuts to increase your profits…

I’m inviting you to apply for my upcoming AdWords Jumpstart class.

Class starts Monday, January 7, 2012. Limited to 10 students, by application only.

Sign up to learn more and apply:
http://mainstreetroi.com/adwords-early-bird

“Early Bird” Discount Ends Soon!

We’re offering a special “early bird” discount when you apply early.

Click here to learn more and apply

Google AdWords recently launched a beta program to test remarketing for Search ads and the early results are extremely positive.  Some advertisers are showing an increase in advertising return on investment (ROI) by as much as 50%!

As you may know, I’m a huge fan of retargeting (or remarketing in Google AdWords). Until now AdWords remarrketing has only been available for Display ad campaigns. But with this new program, you can now retarget on Google.com when your prospects are searching for related products and services.

How Remarketing Lists for Search Ads (RLSA) Works

Essentially, RLSA works just like any old retargeting campaign.  When prospects visit your website they are added to a retargeting list.  Technically speaking a cookie is added to the prospect’s browser which allows you to display ads exclusively to her (or more specifically, her computer).  As more and more people visit your website, your retargeting list grows larger so you have more opportunities to display your ads.

But here’s where RLSA is different.  Instead of displaying banner and text ads on other websites, you can target your ads when your prospect is searching in Google.com!  That means you can advertise on a relevant keyword, but only show your ads if the person has already visited your website.

Why Use RLSA

Think about it.  If someone already visited your website, then she is familiar with your business and may already know about the benefits of your products and services.  Therefore, when she searches in Google.com, she’ll likely recognize your brand in the sea of competitors. So she’ll be more likely to click on your ad and convert to a customer compared to all the other people searching the same keyword.

And Google is backing this up with hard data from beta testers who are already using RLSA.  Some advertisers are seeing a 50% increase in conversion rates on the RLSA ads compared to the standard Search ads.  A 50% bump in conversion rates means you can increase your bids by at least 50% to move your ads up in the rankings.  As your ads move up the rankings, you’ll naturally drive more traffic and and more sales, while maintaining the same return on investment from your Search ads!

Can you see how RLSA can help squeeze even more profit out of your AdWords Search campaigns?  This is exciting technology that should become available to all advertisers in the near future. Ask your AdWords rep to make sure you get access as soon as possible.

Earlier this month I interviewed Julian Farley, the founder of Zaragoza Marketing. Julian is a very sharp marketer and he’s one of the few real experts in the field of retargeting advertising.

If you’re not familiar with retargeting, then check out How to Bring Prospects Back Using AdWords Remarketing and Now You Can ReTarget & Follow Up on Facebook.  Also, if you’re a member of Main Street Inner Circle, then you’ll receive a copy of our interview this week via email so be on the lookout.

During our call, we covered everything a business needs to know to get started with retargeting.  However, we did not have enough time to touch on the advanced ad technique I’m about to share in this article, which allows you to ethically steal your competitors’ prospects.   I originally learned about this tactic from Julian and I’m in the process of testing this out for some private clients.

Here’s how this works:

1. Use a little-known advertising platform to target key pages on competitors’ websites or on competitors’ social media groups like Facebook Fan pages
2. Use retargeting technology to build your list of prospects and deliver relevant ads on top websites like CNN.com and MSNBC.com.

So you’re probably wondering, what is this little-known advertising platform?

Pay Per View (PPV) Advertising

The secret sauce to this strategy is pay per view (PPV) Advertising (also known as cost per view (CPV) Advertising).  As the name implies, with PPV advertising you pay per each view of your ad.  But your ads are not displayed like traditional banners on other websites.

With PPV advertising, your ads actually pop up on the prospect’s browser after she searches for a particular keyword or visits a particular website.  That means you can target people who are searching for your product or service in a search engine like Google. Plus, you can target people who visit certain websites that are highly related to your product or service.

For example, a sushi restaurant in NYC could target ads to people who search for and/or visit competitor sushi restaurants in NYC.  Anyone searching for or surfing around on a competitor sushi site is definitely interested in sushi and wants to find a restaurant.  So these would be ideal prospects to target.

I don’t have time to get into the details about how PPV works.  So if you want more info, click here for a demonstration.

How to Steal Your Competitors’ Prospects

So now that we know about PPV advertising, we can dive into the details about how to actually steal your competitors’ prospects.

One obvious strategy is to simply use PPV ads when prospects are searching for competitor names or visiting competitor websites.  As mentioned above, you could popup your ads to these prospects and make a compelling offer to do business with you.  This works, but we can take it a step further with retargeting.

You see, most people will not buy right away.  A good ad may convert 1 – 2% of everyone who sees it.  And even if you use a lead generation campaign and offer something to collect contact information, the majority will still say no.  So with PPV alone, you will miss out on most of the prospects and you will not have the ability to follow up.

But what if you add retargeting code to the PPV popup ad?

Ah ha!  That would allow you to build a list of prospects as a retargeting pool.  The “list” would be completely anonymous since retargeting does not give personally identifiable information, but it still gives you the ability to follow up using highly targeting and highly relevant banner ads.

Can you see how powerful this strategy can be if you’re targeting the right keywords and websites?  You can literally build a list of your competitors’ prospects and then run banner ad campaigns to convince them to do business with you.  If you want more information or help getting a campaign like this set up, then click here to contact us.

Today, I want to share an advertising strategy that will probably seem risky, inefficient, or even counterproductive to you. But if you follow my advice, you may uncover an opportunity to double your sales.

OK, let’s get started…

2 Types of Prospects

The first thing you need to know is that you have 2 basic groups of prospects. This is always true, no matter what products or services you’re advertising,

A. Shoppers

These people are actively searching for companies like yours.

For example, a person who is looking for a massage therapist in San Francisco might go to Google and search “massage San Francisco.” He or she is ready to buy, and is just trying to decide whom to do business with.

If you’re advertising to shoppers, you should present your case for why they should do business with you versus your competitors.

B. Researchers

These people are not yet ready to buy. They just know that they have a problem and they are researching potential solutions.

For example, this type of prospect might be experiencing back pain and is researching solutions. He or she might go to Google and type “natural back pain relief” – and then start learning about the benefits of massage or chiropractic or physical therapy, and so on.

If you’re advertising to researchers, I wouldn’t recommend launching into a pitch about your company. They’re not ready for that.

Instead, you should provide them with information that answers their questions, such as a free report in exchange for your prospect’s contact information. This type of advertising is known as lead generation advertising.

Which Group Should You Advertise To?

My short answer is both. You should set up 2 separate AdWords campaigns, one targeting Shoppers and one targeting Researchers. These 2 campaigns will have totally separate keywords, ads, and landing pages.

But if you’re just getting started with advertising, I recommend targeting Shoppers because it’s simpler. Then, once you have those ads working for you, start testing lead generation ads to target the Researchers.

3 Benefits of Lead Generation Advertising

Here’s why I believe every business should be running lead generation ads…

1. You’ll Generate More Leads

There are always more researchers than shoppers, so you’re targeting a bigger universe of potential prospects. Also, lead generation ads typically get a much higher response rate compared with ads that directly promote a product or service.

2. Expert Positioning

Assuming you provide useful information in your free report, your prospects will see you as a credible authority. This positioning will further increase your response rates because people like doing business with experts.

3. Ability to Follow Up

Finally, by offering your free report in exchange for your prospects’ contact information, you’ll have the ability to follow up. And this further increases your ability to make the sale.

Here’s What to Do Now

The first step to get started with lead generation advertising is to identify the keywords your prospects are searching when they’re in research mode.  Use the Google Keyword tool to identify these keywords. Then, make a list of the questions you’ll want to answer in your free report.

Google recently announced the release of demographic targeting within the AdWords Display Network.  For many advertisers this is old news, but Google finally opened up their beta testing to all advertisers in 39 countries.

This is great news for every business already advertising.  And if you’re not yet using AdWords to drive leads and sales, then now it’s even easier to target your ideal customer and display the message that best matches her needs.

What is Age & Gender Targeting?

With age and gender targeting, it’s now possible to create an AdWords display advertising campaign that will only be visible to men or women in a certain age range.  For example, let’s say you own a woman’s clothing store and you want to target 35 – 54 year old women in your city, because that’s your ideal customer.  In AdWords, you can now exclude all men and all women who are not 35 – 54 years old.  So your ads will only be visible to exactly who you want to target!

Note that this is not an exact science and Google does not precisely know who is actually using every computer.  Google can determine demographic information based on anonymous browsing history of computers.  So over time as your prospects surf around the internet, their computers will be categorized as male or female, within a certain age range.

How to Use Age & Gender Targeting

The first step to utilize this new targeting tool is to identify your ideal customer segments.  For example, are your best customers 25 – 34 year old men?  Or is your service a good fit for over 65 year old women?

If you’re not sure, then take a look at your historical sales data to see if you can identify any trends.  Also, if you’re already advertising on the AdWords display network,, then go to the “Display Network” tab, click on the “Change display targeting” button, select “Specific genders” and “Specific ages,” and then click Save.  Now your campaigns will start to display stats for each demographic segment and over time you’ll be able to identify your top segments.

The second step is to craft your advertising copy and landing pages to match your target segments.  For example, if you’re targeting young men, then make sure your ads and landing pages reference men using your product or service and show relevant pictures whenever possible.

The third step is to monitor the performance of each demographic segment so you can optimize “winning” segments and exclude any poor performing segments.

That’s it! By following these three steps you should see a significant boost in your ad click through rates and sales conversion rates over time.

Back in  June 2012, Facebook announced the debut of their Ad Exchange. What does this mean for your business?

Think of the Facebook Ad Exchange (FBX) as a way for business owners to retarget and follow up with prospects when they are surfing around on Facebook. For example, a prospect may visit your website, read all about your product or service, and then leave because the timing isn’t right to contact your business.

And if your prospect is one of the 955 million active Facebook users, then she will probably end up browsing facebook.com within a few hours or days.  Now, with the introduction of FBX, you can laser target your ads to display only to prospects who have already visited your website.

(For more info about how to use retargeting on Google AdWords, read How to Bring Prospects Back Using AdWords Remarketing.)

This is pretty exciting and I just started testing ads for one of my private clients this past month.  So far, the results look promising.

How to Use the Facebook Ad Exchange (FBX)

At this time, there are only a few advertising platforms that have access to FBX.  So if you want to test this out you’ll need to create an account on one of the following: adRoll, AppNexus, DataXu, MediaMath, TellApart, TheTradeDesk, Triggit, or Turn.

To get started, here are a few strategies you may want to test to bring prospects back to your website:

1. Special Facebook promotion. Reward your prospect with a special offer exclusively for Facebook users.
2. Testimonial or endorsement.  Create an ad that is a testimonial or endorsement for your business.  Facebook is all about sharing so your prospect will be more likely to read and respond to this type of ad.
3. Reminder.  Your prospect is busy so it’s possible she got distracted and simply forgot about the problem she’s trying to solve.  For example, if you’re an appliance repair business, then create an ad that says, “Did you fix your appliance yet?”

Since the prospect has already displayed intent to buy your product or service, you can craft an ad campaign that resonates and converts more than a standard Facebook ad.  There really are countless different ways to capture attention and bring lost prospects back so you can turn them into sales.

If you’re already testing FBX, then please post a comment below to share your campaign performance so far.